Wherever you are going in this big, adventurous world, you are going to need some necessities. Obviously, what you will need depends on the tour/trip you are taking. If you are going on our Jewish Ottawa and Montreal tour, you’re going to need warm clothing and a heavy coat, particularly for the winter months. If you are going on our Escorted Cuba Tour, you will want a bathing suit and sunscreen, especially if you take the tour during the summertime. A lot of our tours take place in Europe and European weather can differ greatly depending upon the region and time of year. As a general reference, the Baltic Tour will be the coldest, requiring the greatest amount of winter clothing. Southern Europe conversely, including our Tour of Italy, will usually be pretty temperate, but remember to bring a light jacket. The British Isles will on the other hand, get pretty cold, and will almost always have rain, so make sure you bring a raincoat on our Ireland, Scotland and England Tour. Two of our hottest destinations are also some of our most popular trips- our tours to Israel and our India Tour. If you are going on one of those tours, you will want lightweight clothing that doesn’t overheat you, but also, especially if you are a woman, you will want to consider environmental modesty guidelines and not bring things that are too provocative. Packing may seem like a trivial measure compared to the seemingly more important parts of trip preparation such as choosing a tour group that you will love (look no further than Israel Tour), booking, researching the cities you are going to visit and attractions you want to see and preparing to take off work/arrange babysitters, pet sitters, etc., but what you pack can either greatly enhance or significantly dampen your trip. That’s why Israel Tour has compiled a list of must-haves for any of our tours around the world. We have broken it up into five easy to understand categories: clothing, documents and money and toiletries.

Clothing is probably the most situational of all of the categories as it greatly depends on where in the world your tour is taking place, but there are a few essentials universal to wherever you are heading. These include: blouses, pants, shirts, underwear, socks, shoes, jacket (bring at least a lightweight jacket, even if you are heading to a sunnier destination, as nights get windy in pretty much every city), sleepwear, swimwear, fancier clothes for eating out, more modest items if you are in a more conservative country and a heavy coat if you are traveling somewhere cold.

The next category consists of: money, money belt, identification and other documents, guidebooks and maps, notebooks and pencils to jot down important information and a small day pack to make sure you don’t lose any of the aforementioned essential items.

Regarding toiletries, make sure you don’t skimp on hygiene while abroad! To stay smelling and looking good you will want to pack: a comprehensive toiletry kit, medicine and vitamins, first aid kit, glasses/contacts/sunglasses, laundry soap and clothesline (you might not always have access to a washer/dryer), small towel/washcloth for bathing, sewing kit, travel alarm or a watch to set an alarm with and earplugs if you find yourself in a noisy hostel.